Why Talking About Spirituality and Religion is Important

 Hello one and all!
Things are so wild and so good. I have suffered some immense difficulty over the past few months, but that is only fair when I consider all of the amazing joys and blessings that I get to live every day. I love school, I love my job, I love the people I live with, and just all of the small and beautiful things about everyday life. And of course I love getting to write with all of you!

As you all well know, I am a very religious person. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and it plays a huge part in my life--like, such a huge part that it can't really be described; I often am asked what my life would look like if I didn't know about the things I believe and I genuinely couldn't tell you because they are such a fantastically large part of me.
With that said, and as many of you well know just from knowing me, I can hardly have a conversation without God coming up. Since God is at the center of everything I do, it only makes sense that God is at the center of everything I talk about. Sometimes I feel like it might come off as a gimmick, but the truth is that if I don't mention God frequently I feel guilty. As I believe it, God gave me everything in my life. Every good thing that happens to me is because of Him. For me, I talk about God and my religious beliefs a lot because in my eyes God is the origin of every wonderful thing in my life.
To be honest, though, I know that I'm a pretty rare person in that regard. Most people aren't like that. A lot of people avoid talking about religion or try to hide their beliefs altogether. Some people fear being bullied or belittled, and others don't want to cause contention or arguments. In fairness, therefore, I get why some people are hesitant to talk about their spiritual beliefs.
But I don't think it should be that way. I in fact think that sharing spiritual beliefs is so important and, that if it happened more often, the whole world would be a lot better off. My hope is that I can start a conversation here today on why this is important and how we can let go of the things holding us back from having these amazing conversations with each other.
In my religion, we believe that all religions hold truth. Since that's true, I love learning about other people's beliefs. Everyone's ideas contain such great insights on our spirits, on the world, on the purpose of life, on God, on so many things. When I hear other people talk about their religious beliefs and share their ideas with me, I learn more about my own beliefs and who God is. The love and joy of hearing someone sincerely talk about what they believe is so pure and beautiful that it is simply uplifting just to hear.
The problem we have with talking about religion is that we have made it a bad thing because we've turned it into a debate when it should really just be a conversation. We have so much to learn from each other that we can't afford for it to be an argument. Here's the thing, people (and as a return missionary for my Church, I can say this with more conviction than probably anyone else): people are not going to listen to you if you are mean and belittle them. So when I want people to believe in God because He has blessed my life so much, I do not tell them they are going to hell! Because no one wants to go where love is not present. I tell them how much I have felt the love of God and how He has made me a better person, and I leave it at that. Because that's the truth, and that's all anyone that wants to learn more about my religion really needs to know at its core.
The thing to keep in mind with religious conversations is that no one needs to convince anyone of anything. I have friends across many religious denominations and talk about religion with them frequently. They know it's important to me, and it is important to many of my friends as well! Like I said, we don't all believe the same. But we're friends, and we're okay with that. We see that our beliefs are deeply personal to each of us and that all of our beliefs stem from goodness and a desire to do the right thing. When you think about it that way, there is truly nothing to argue about. Everyone is trying to do what's right! Only pure intentions here! That means that good things are going to happen. When we walk into a conversation about spiritual beliefs knowing that no one there needs to convince anyone of anything, we just need to talk about things that matter to us, everyone can be uplifted by the conversation and learn a lot. I know I sure have learned a lot from people of other religions. For example, I love studying Judaism because it teaches me so much about my religion. I've also enjoyed learning about symbolisms and rituals in Catholicism. There is so much to enjoy about each religion and I love hearing about what other people believe.
This subject makes me think of a personal experience in my life that took place just over a year ago. My best friend of about four years is an atheist. You all know I am a very devoted Christian. She is so kind and understanding of my religion. She lets me share the things that matter to me, and understands that there are some things in life that I hold sacred, even if she does not believe those same things. This friend of mine was also raised in a Christian home, but she decided preteen/teenage years that she didn't believe the things she had grown up being taught.
Since I knew her religious origins and I knew her present religious standings, I was always curious about her spiritual journey and how she got to the point of the holding her new beliefs. I always wanted to ask, but I was too scared to do it. Who can say why? Maybe it was because I didn't want to make her uncomfortable, or maybe it was because I was afraid she would think I was trying to make her feel ashamed of her beliefs, when all I genuinely wanted was to know.
Well, as you can imagine, being a missionary kind of changed that. Talking to random strangers (a number of which later become good friends) about religious beliefs all day every day will quickly make it absolutely comfortable to do in every context. One day I was writing to my friend and told her that I had always wondered about her beliefs and her religious journey and I wondered if she would be willing to do a phone call with me sometime just to talk about it. She said that she would love to, and that (get this, folks) she usually just didn't talk about religious things because she didn't want to cause an argument.
We did a serious of phone calls in which we talked about her beliefs and mine. We got to understand how we both came to believe in/not believe in God, and what our thoughts on life and death were. She asked any and all random questions she could think of about my religion and I answered them. And we even talked about how good it was for us to have these conversations with each other, how it made us both think about what we really believed. Neither of us changed our religions during that time, but I do think that both of us changed. Having these conversations is a great opportunity to learn from those around us and even from ourselves.
So I guess if I had any invitation to give it would be that. Don't be afraid of talking about what you believe; in fact, seek out opportunities to do it. It will be hard to get other people on board at first, but it's just because they're afraid. Maybe if we make it clear that we have no intention or desire to cause an argument that will help. Maybe it will just take some explaining: "Hey, my religion means a lot to me so I just like to talk about it a lot. I like to learn about what other people believe too. I think it's so fascinating how much can be learned from what other people believe." I think that is what the majority of people want out of religious conversations, but they are afraid that others will perceive it the wrong way. If we all work together, there's a lot we can learn from each other. We can be united just as God intends us to.
Thanks and much love!

No Eating Rules?

Hello one and all!
I've provided a few new videos over the past few weeks, but I've been away from the keyboard for quite some time, and I'm sorry about that. I miss writing whenever I'm away from it.
I have been ridiculously busy, as you can imagine. Why anyone in their right mind would willingly choose to study English education, theatre, and film, I really don't know. I don't even know why people willingly choose to study English at all. The amount of reading and writing we have to do is absolutely ridiculous. And studying English education in specific is essentially like having a double major. So what I'm getting at is I have a double major and a double minor. Pray for me if you will.
But in all seriousness, I have had a really hard semester for so very many reasons. There have been many days I have been practically entirely unable to function. Things have gotten better as I've reached out for help and told people about my situation. Thank you all so  much for supporting me through all of the difficulties of this new semester. With all of that said, I feel so endlessly grateful to be in the position where I am. I can't believe that I get to study the only things I love every day (and I mean that quite literally, because I take religious classes at the religious institute across the street as well), and that there are a bunch of people like me that I am making connections with and working with all the time, and we are making each other's work better. I feel so much joy to be in this position. I can't believe that making content for people to enjoy and teaching young children how to do the same is something that I get to do for the rest of my life.

It has been requested that I write a post about mental health. There have been a lot of things on my mind that I would like to write about, but one thing in specific has been continuously coming up and I feel like I should finally address it. People are frequently curious about what I mean when I say it's important to not have eating rules.
I think most of you know that I suffered from disordered eating for many years of my life. The behaviors reached their disastrous peak when I was eighteen and that's when I finally started getting help. A lot more was required than I expected, and that's because a lot more was wrong than I understood. I ended up meeting frequently with an eating disorders specialist, and that was one of the best and most difficult summers of my life. While healing isn't easy, it is so happy. I think of that time with so much fondness. The lessons learned in eating therapy are far too vast for one post, so I'm going to try my hand at explaining this lesson in as clear and concise a manner as I possibly can.
I think this concept is well-introduced by a story from my therapy days. My therapist, Penny, asked if there was a time in my life I could recall that I felt really healthy. I thought on it for a minute, and I think I mentioned my sophomore winter guard season. I thought I ate pretty well at that time, and as a result I remember my body just typically feeling really good, no major complaints. I remember feeling so strong, like I could do anything. And I did do a lot of good stuff with my color guard team. We worked hard and performed well. I loved the athletic outlet I had with my team; I loved the activity and the way it felt. The follow-up question perplexed me. Penny asked, "Did you have any rules?"
I didn't really know what she meant. I just sat there confused for a moment and finally had to ask for clarification. She said, "Did you have any rules, things you were and weren't allowed to eat?"
I reflected on it in that therapy session, and I've reflected on it even more since, now that I have a better understanding of the things that I learned in therapy. (If you're puzzled and perplexed by the things you learn in therapy, even after therapy is done, don't lose hope--it takes time to absorb all of the cool knowledge we get there!) I didn't. At least not any major or conscious ones. It probably was one of the healthiest times of my life, because I don't remember thinking about food as something I had to manage as much as I did in other times of my life. I just ate. When I needed to, I ate. I remember having a pretty healthy and balanced diet. Very little extremes seemed to be happening at the time. And of course along with the good eating habits I had the activity from color guard, and that combination contributed to my body feeling pretty great all the time. There were no eating rules.
I learned how to eat at therapy the summer of 2018. It sounds dramatic, but it's true; I realized that summer that I really had not known how to eat for my whole life--or at least for the strong majority of it. That summer I learned the two major rules for eating that would lead to a happy and healthy me.
The first rule is that there can be absolutely no rules. I know it sounds so dumb and cliche, while simultaneously sounding out of the norm when talking about physical health, but this will be the most healthy eating rule you ever learn in your life. No eating rules allowed. None.
The second rule, which surely sounds crazy because I just said we can't have rules, is to eat a wide variety of things. Pairing this rule with the first puts the first eating rule a little more in context. When I say no eating rules, I mean you shouldn't put personal boundaries on what you aren't allowed to eat. (Like, keeping avoiding your food allergies, bros. I'm still not gonna eat avocado because I still get ill every time I do. Food restrictions for your own personal health reasons are allowed.) Have you quit eating sugar? Stop that! You need sugar! Don't put unnecessary limits on what you can and can't eat.
I hope this is making some semblance of sense. Let me elaborate a bit.
I don't remember if it was the same therapy session or not, but this was one that shook me to my core. My therapist was describing to me what normal and healthy hunger and eating is like. It is an entirely different world from what I was experiencing back then. She was talking about how frequently a body should feel hungry if it is eating normally (every two to three hours), and how periodically I should be eating full meals and snacks. At this point she described the variety in eating. She described different foods as parts of this eating habit. Different things I could eat as a snack. And then she said, "And for one day you could have a candy bar for a snack."
*cue brain explosion*
I was in absolute shock. This was a turning point for me. I could not believe it. Candy bars are unhealthy food--so you can't eat them, right?
Wrong. What is inherently wrong with a candy bar from time to time? Seriously, what? Nothing. It's okay to eat a wide variety of things.
When I realized that eating those things was okay, my entire life changed. I started looking at things so differently, and I started acting so differently. It is one of the things that helped me realize eating isn't a crime. It helped me start to branch out and put myself in less of a box.
As we continued our sessions, at the end of every meeting Penny would ask me about any other random eating thoughts I had. I would tell her what I was thinking and feeling at that time. And every response reinforced this idea.
"I've been feeling like I want to eat less oils lately," I'd say. " I feel like I've just been eating a lot of that and it makes me feel gross."
"I'm really glad you said you want to eat less and not that you want to stop eating it," she said. "It is perfectly fine to change your eating to make sure you are eating more balanced. But you don't want to restrict yourself from eating certain things."
I started using these rules as ways to figure out what I wanted to eat. When it was time for me to eat, I would think about what I had already eaten today. Okay, I've eaten a protein today and a fruit today. Maybe I can have a grain or a vegetable now. I would just think about what I had already eaten that day, and start thinking about what I could eat that wasn't one of those things. And when my mind fell across something I hadn't eaten yet that sounded good to my body, I would eat that. It was amazing.
So that's what I mean when I say there are no eating rules. The best way to eat is just listen to whatever your body is feeling at the time. Like in the above example: I felt like I was eating too much of one type of food, and my body didn't like it. I was starting to learn to listen, so I picked up on that. And ate less, not stopped eating it altogether. Whatever my body tells me do, I try to do it.
I know what you're thinking, because this is what people tell me so frequently when I bring up not having eating rules. "But Lizzo, if I didn't have eating rules and just ate whatever I felt like eating, I would just eat garbage all the time. I would never eat anything healthy." This is both true and false. I mean, as you learn to listen to your body this might be true initially. But if this is about listening to the way your body feels, this wouldn't be true forever. If you only eat high-sugar foods all day every day, you're going to get sick, and your body is going to demand you stop. It's going to demand you eat something else. As you learn to listen to how your body genuinely feels when you prepare to eat, you will eat what your body is really asking for. And sometimes that might be healthier foods and sometimes it might be unhealthier, but as long as you are listening to whatever your body is asking for in that moment, your body will be happy and healthy.

Here's the other thing I get all the time. If people are going on a no sugar diet or something similar, I'll tell them about how I don't have eating rules. And they'll laugh and tell me, "Well, Lizzo, you've been restricting your eating for years. I'm doing this because I've gone too long without eating rules!"
Woah, I didn't say no eating rules for just people that have had disordered eating issues. This is for everyone! Because it is based just on listening to the needs of your body. Have you been living without eating rules? Or have you internalized a culture that has convinced you eating is a sin? So maybe when you were eating what you want to (which remember is not inherently wrong), you were just feeling guilty about it because you thought you weren't supposed to. When there was actually nothing wrong.
I just want you all to know how loved and valuable you are. Particularly by me. The way I eat isn't special for me. I know it can be hard to wrap your mind around--trust me, I was there not long ago. But eating without rules is just normal eating. It just is. It is allowing yourself to just exist. Loves, you deserve to just exist. You deserve to not beat yourself up for being alive.
Thank you so much for being my strength as I've gone through all of these things in my life. I hope to be yours.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. Thanks and much love!